Quentin Tarantino has put his next film, The Hateful Eight, on hold after the
script was supposedly leaked by agents of Bruce Dern and Michael Madsen

Quentin Tarantino has decided to publish the script to his next film as a book, rather than release it as a motion picture, after it was leaked by one of the six people he shared it with.

Tarantino showed the first draft of a script for his forthcoming ensemble western, The Hateful Eight, to six people and learned that it had been leaked after agents started to pitch their clients for roles in the film.

Tarantino broke the news to Deadline himself, saying, "I’m very, very depressed. I finished a script, a first draft, and I didn’t mean to shoot it until next winter, a year from now. I gave it to six people, and apparently it’s gotten out today."

Among the six people was Django Unchained producer Reggie Hudlin, who allowed his agent to read the script in what Tarantino called "a betrayal". However, the leak more likely came from one of the three actors Tarantino shared the script with: Michael Madsen, who worked with Tarantino on Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction star Tim Roth and Bruce Dern, who has been Oscar nominated for his performance in Nebraska.

Tarantino told Deadline that he knows Roth "didn't do this", but that either Dern or Roth "let their agent read it, and that agent has now passed it on to everyone in Hollywood".

The conclusion of which is that Tarantino won't be making The Hateful Eight next, but will be making meetings with publishers this week to publish it as a novel.

Tarantino added: "I give it out to six people, and if I can’t trust them to that degree, then I have no desire to make it. I’ll publish it. I’m done. I’ll move on to the next thing. I’ve got 10 more where that came from." But he stressed that he wanted to know who was responsible after he personally gave the script to Dern, Roth and Madsen himself. "It’s got to be either the agents of Dern or Madsen" he said. "Please name names.”

Tarantino had been working on another script at the same time as that for The Hateful Eight. He had originally intended to film the western in Winter 2015, but says now that he will do the other film.